AP Classes; what classes should your child take, and how much work they are
A quick journey inside the world of Advanced Placement
As college acceptance rates plummet, and tuition fees rise, more and more children are starting to take Advanced Placement, or AP, classes in high school. These classes teach at a more advanced and faster rate than regular or honors classes, and give students a variety of benefits; they are weighted on a 5.0 level rather than a 4.0 level, which increases GPA, they are well regarded by colleges in terms of admissions, and passing AP classes can result in college credit, saving cost and time for students as they enter college.
All of these advantages are great, but they come at a serious price; an AP class requires much more work, in terms of homework and studying, than regular or honors classes. So, every student needs to come with a balance for selecting AP classes; to take as many as they can handle, but ensure that they do not bite off more than they can chew.
In this guide, I hope to help you and your child in deciding what classes to take, how many to take, and how much work your child is in for.
How much work is an AP class?
To understand the workload involved in an AP class, first we need to understand the difference between AP and regular classes.
In general, AP classes tend to differ in depth, not breadth, from their regular or honor counterparts.
What this means in that AP classes cover the same topics as standard classes, but they tend to go much deeper in the topics they study. Now, since AP classes study the same topics, but have a lot more to study within those topics, an AP class has more to cover in the same amount of time. Because of this, AP classes are also a lot faster paced than standard classes.
This faster pace means that a lot of the practice that regular classes do at school needs to be done at home as homework. Thus, AP classes tend to have much more homework.
In essence, all of this serves to make AP classes more akin to college courses than high school classes.
Now, I have given you a lot of abstract concepts; that AP courses go “deeper” or that they are “fast-paced”.
Many of you are probably looking for something more concrete; a solid number that indicates how many hours of studying per night your child will have to do in order to keep up. Unfortunately, the only answer I can give you is, “it depends.”
It depends on the class your child takes
It depends on the teacher they have, and how they conduct their class
It depends on your child’s own aptitude, and learning pace
It depends on what grade your child is trying to get
So, what you want to take away from this is that selecting how many AP classes to take, and which ones to take, is an individualized affair. What you need to do is sit with your child, gauge their strengths and weaknesses, and decide what schedule is best for them.
In the following paragraphs, I will show you how to do just that.
The First Step: finding your child’s interests
Now, I’m going to tell you something that is very important, and is a mistake many, including myself, have made in high school. Don’t pick AP classes based on what you think colleges like to see.
Since it is so important, I’ll repeat it again. Don’t pick AP classes based on what you think colleges like to see.
I always hear people go, “I wanted to take ______, but decided to take ______ because colleges like it better”.
Another variation of this mentality is a person taking a bunch of easier AP classes to “pad” up their transcript. The problem with both these scenarios is that it doesn’t work.
What colleges like to see is not some student with a bunch of random AP’s that the student holds no interest in anyways, and they certainly don’t have a list of classes that they prefer to see on a transcript. Rather, they want to see what your child’s interest is in, and whether their course load reflects this interest.
For example, if your child is a math whiz who plans to major in Applied Math, colleges will like to see classes like AP Calculus BC and AP Physics C in his transcript, but won’t care much for AP Art History.
So, unless your child is interested in an AP class, there is no reason he should take it just for the sole purpose of it “looking good” to an admissions officer. Rather, the AP classes your child takes should align with his or her interests, or at least their intended major.
Gauging the difficulty of the courses
Now that you and your child have a set of interests in mind, it’s time to see which classes to take, and how much work your child is in for.
As I said before, there are too many variables for me to give a concrete number on how much work a class will be. However, there are ways to get a general idea.
Talk to current students or graduates who took the classes your child is interested in, and create a mental idea of how much work will be required to maintain the grade you and your child are happy with. In this part, I can help you out a little. As a high school senior, as of yet I have taken 15 AP classes, and have friends who have taken others.
From my own experiences, and the testimonies of my friends, I have created a table that gives a general idea of the difficulties and workloads of more than 20 AP classes.
Please use this table to guide your decisions, but remember that this is based solely on my experiences or that of my friends, and is completely subjective; the experiences of your child may differ. And remember; there is no shame in taking an honors class before an AP class.
Even if your child loves chemistry, it may be a good idea to take honors chemistry before AP Chemistry to ease him into advanced topics.
Creating a four year plan
Now that your child has a list of classes he is interested in, and a relative idea of the difficulty of them, it is time for him to see which classes to take this year, and which to put off for later.
This is a personalized decision; your child needs to understand their limits, and balance that with their aspirations.
The only suggestion I make is to not pile too much onto your child’s plate; I definitely would not recommend taking more than 3 classes that are marked on my table to have a “high” workload in one year. Beyond that, it is up to you and your child.
